Bloody Cuts, Broken Bones, and First Kisses
by parttime-dumbblonde
Summary: A 15 year old Integra tries to take a peacful hike but ends up seriously hurting herself. Alucard introduces his own kind of pain relief. AxI Read and Review pleeez!


It was one of those rare London days. The kind where you can actually see the whole of the bright, hot sun; it's not obscurred by haze and it's not replaced by dark storm clouds. It was a gorgeous day and not only because the weather was ideal, but because, for once, the 15 year-old Integra Hellsing was able to pull herself out from behind the mountains of paperwork and news reports and into the outside world she rarely saw. Infact, she dismissed work for a whole hour; she really couldn't believe it herself, either. She changed into something comfortable and escaped outside.

Scanning the green landscape around her, Integra decided that a nature hike sounded enjoyable. There was one path that began not far from the mansion; it went quite a ways, circling the whole of the Hellsing grounds, presenting its traveler with a variety of scenes and trails. She had walked it with her father years ago. She could still remember the small thrills of walking across wooden bridges and logs. She felt herself getting a little giddy as she neared the trail's entrance.

The scene surrounding her quickly transformed from a sunny, light green field into a dim, dark green, moist forest that became more and more dense the further she walked. She was glad to see that the trail was still being used from time to time; the dirt path was clear and unobstructed. She remembered, suddenly, that this was where she had first encountered Alucard's familiar, the hellhound. Back when she was 12, after finding and waking the vampire, Integra discovered that the monster was extrememly protective of her. He followed her everywhere, even to school; he would drift on the ground around her as haze when she walked to school, and, once she was inside, he'd find a dark corner someplace and plant himself amongst the shadows there. She wasn't aware of this until one day she went for a walk on this trail, heard something behind her, turned, and found a great big, black beast just down the trail, watching her. She was scared at first, turned around, and walked a little faster. It wasn't until she broke out into a run only to turn the corner and find the same beast sitting on the trail ahead of her, that she realized it was Alucard. It was that damned smirk and those creepy eight eyes that gave it away.

She looked around now, relieved to no end to find not a single furry black dog anywhere around her. Nope, everywhere she looked was lush green foliage. She inhaled deeply and exhaled, delighting in the way the sunbeams played in kaleidoscope patterns on the dark dirt trail. She couldn't remember the last time she "delighted" in anything; it was a little overwhelming, really. Up ahead, she could see that she was nearing the end of the trail. She checked her watch. She had already spent a good 45 minutes hiking. She told herself that she truly enjoyed it; she would have to make time for this again someday. Her marker for the last part of the trail was a huge, dead tree that had fallen vertically across the original path. Now, one had to climb up its web of roots and balance on the thick trunk as they walked across the tree to the end of the trail (or close enough to the end). It was Integra's favorite part of the trail. Often, she had run out here and walked the trail backwards just so she could walk up and down the tree.

Just like years before, she gripped a giant root above her, laid one foot on another lower one, pulled up, laid the other foot on the next highest root, pulled up, and continued climbing until she was able to step onto the trunk itself. Eventhough she had grown, the tree was still enormously wide; she felt comfortable on the trunk after just a few seconds. The tree had split when it fell, but the part on the trail was still a good 15 feet long. She began her walk down the trunk, loving the small challenge of balancing on the huge pine. For most of the way, she kept her eyes down, always on the few feet ahead of her. Suddenly, a rustle in the trees caused her to look up. She didn't stop her feet, though, but kept on walking, balancing, while watching to see what flew out of the trees. A blue jay, maybe? They were so pretty.

All of a sudden, Integra heard another sound. Very faint. Was it another bird? Was it the same one? She stopped to listen, but didn't hear anything, so she continued. She took a couple more steps and heard that same noise yet again. This time, she realized, it wasn't coming from the foliage around her. No, this noise was a cracking noise coming from someplace lower. Like right under her feet, for instance. _Damn,_ she thought. _It's alright, though,_ she told herself. _It's only a little dead wood. Termites and decay and all. Just keep moving._ She took several more steps, all the time the noise increasing below her. _Just keep--AHH!_ With a resounding CRACK and then a CRUNCH, Integra's foot collapsed through the side of the weakened pine. The cave-in was so sudden, Integra had no time to shift her weight and she ended up crashing down through the side of the dead, termite-infested wood all the way to the damp earth five or six feet below. She landed first on one ankle which tore a sharp cry from the young director before the rest of her collapsed to the ground with an "_Oomph!"_

She was laying with one cheek pressed to the dirt, both arms to the side, bent in a feeble attempt to break her fall, while the lower half of her body was turned onto one side, one hip lying on a dead branch or a rock most uncomfortably. She groaned; her whole body ached for a moment while she took some deep breaths. Everything around her was blurry; she had lost her glasses in the fall. She felt around for them, but found nothing. She groaned and moved her knees up, preparing to stand. she was halfway up when she switched her body's weight to that one foot that she landed on earlier. Her face contorted in pain and she stumbled back, falling to the side. This time, an arm was out and ready to stop her fast descent.

CRUNCH

_DAMN IT!_

She jerked her hand back quickly, falling on her forearm instead. "OOoooow!" Even in her surprise she recognized that awful crunch. She lifted a blurry hand to her face and plucked a sliver of glass from her palm. It was the sound of a very expensive pair of prescription glasses shattering into tiny fragments. She picked up the frames and threw a few choice curse words at them before dropping them in her pocket.

She growled and tried again to stand, pulling herself up using the now jagged edge of the "stupid tree" (Integra's words). Slowly, growling all the way, she limped down the rest of the "bloody trail" and made her way back to the Hellsing mansion.

Integra went through the extra trouble of walking a little ways around the mansion in order to sneak in, unseen, through the back door and into the kitchen. In the nearest bathroom, Walter kept a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in a cabinet. Along with it, she grabbed a pad of gauze and some athletic bandage to wrap around her ankle.

Limping back into the kitchen, she noticed it was kind of dark and everything was a little hard to see, but she didn't feel like making the extra trip to the light switch. She reached the sink and set the things down. As she did, she noticed a strange redness on all the supplies. She looked at her hands and groaned. She must have cut her palm pretty deeply on the her glasses; she was bleeding quite a bit. "_I guess I'll just have to handle this first,"_ she thought, grabbing the bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide with her other hand and unscrewing the lid. She put her bloodied hand over the sink and tipped the bottle with the other.

Suddenly, a white-gloved hand slid in from behind her and took Integra's injured hand by the wrist, gently, before she could pour the contents of the bottle onto it to clean the cut.

"Alucard!"

"Master..." They just stared at each other. Integra tried once to pull her hand back, insisting that she must clean it, but Alucard didn't yield; he held onto her, his eyes drifting from hers down to the pooling blood in her hand.

"Alucard. Let go...now!" She knew that allowing Alucard even just a small taste of her blood would make him blood lust for more. He could control himself, she knew, but it was creepy and annoying the way he acted. For instance, whenever it was "her time of the month", Alucard always followed her around. More aggressive than usual. Still, he had never hurt her.

She stared down at the blood about to drip from her hand. She sighed and set the bottle she was holding down onto the counter top. "Okay," she said quietly at first. Then, a little louder, more sure, "You may."

He grinned that insane, fanged grin of his, and pulled her palm to his mouth where, immediately, his tongue shot out and lapped at the sanguine fluid.

She stared at him, at the way he closed his eyes and...was that a moan? His ruby orbs flashed up to meet her blue ones. She pretended to be looking at her hand. The blood was almost all gone. She could feel his tongue pressing at the cut, drawing whatever was left there out to the skin. Doing this, he unknowingly pulled her hand closer to his mouth, pulling her with it. Suddenly, she was leaning on her bad ankle. She grimaced. The pain shot up through her leg. It was too much; she cried out in pain and collapsed forward towards Alucard, who caught her beneath the arms.

"Master?" He sounded concerned and shocked all at the same time. She could only groan in response. He turned her around and gently sat her down on the kitchen's tile floor. She bent forward and clasped her ankle.

"Ooow..."

He knelt before her in glasses, huge hat, coat, everything. "Master? Are you hurt?"

She nodded, taking deep breaths. "My ankle. Twisted or something." He looked down at the ankle in question. Just stared at it, glanced back at her, her pained expression, and settled his hands firmly around her shoe to take it off. "Hey! Don't touch it! What are you doing? Don't touch!" His hands didn't move. He looked at her and smirked.

"Master, we can't fix it with your shoe on."

"Okay...just...careful okay?" He grinned and nodded. He gently began to wriggle the shoe from her heal. "Slower!" He cringed and glared back at her. "Okay, Okay...I just won't watch." She turned her head away and stared at...some pots. There were several pots and pans hanging in a little niche in the wall. They were very shiny; they--

"OOoow!" She looked back at him and, through blurry vision, saw that he held her shoe up in his hand. "Oh, good! ...So? Hows it look?"

He peeled back the sock and discarded it by her shoe. He took his hands away and looked at it. She sat up a little bit more to try to see it, but he immediately held up a hand to her chest to hold her back. He looked up and shook his head, "I wouldn't look, if I were you."

"Why? Why not? Let me see! It's part of me, isn't it?" He took his hand away and shrugged letting her look at it. He watched her face. Watched as it paled. Watched as it contorted yet again. "Damn. It. To. Hell." she stated, laying back on the cold tile and closing her eyes.

"I'd say it's pretty broken, Master."

"Yeah. Thanks. Your an enormous help." she stated in monotone.

"What happened?"

"I fell off a log. It was part of a trail and it was dead and decayed inside. I couldn't tell. Thought it was fine...it wasn't."

"You were on that nature trail that goes around the grounds?"

"Yup."

"And you got back here...how?"

"I limped." She sighed, flattening herself on the floor.

"Must have been very painful."

"Mmmhmm" she nodded in the affirmative.

He was leaning over her now, a hand on either side of her face. " And you let me drink your blood? While I let you just stand there in agony?"

"I hope you enjoyed it."

He chuckled. "Your blood? Yes. Your agony? No."

Silence.

"Master?"

"Can you fix it, Alucard?"

His eyes gleamed. "I was just about to mention that.Yes, I think I can."

"You think? The all powerful Alucard only thinks he can do something?"

"Well, it involves your permission and that, dear Master, is not something I'm sure about."

"Does it involve me drinking your blood?" she asked casually, eyes opening briefly, closing again after the question was asked.

He smirked. "No. No blood at all. And to answer your next question: no pain either."

"Then I don't care. Just fix it."

"As you wish, Master." he removed his hat and glasses quietly and quickly, setting them aside. Then he leaned forward silently and, softly, touched his lips to Integra's. Her eyes flew open, but she was trapped beneath him. She thought about breaking the kiss, thinking it just a ploy, a stupid trick, but his lips were moving over her own now, gently nudging them open. She couldn't concentrate on anything when she felt his tongue. It caressed her lips at first, just the very inside of them. Then, he was leaning into her, his kiss becoming more fervent and his tongue playing everywhere inside her mouth. She was surprised. Was this...no...it couldn't be...damn it, it was. It was her first kiss. She felt his fingers in her hair, on the side of her face, caressing her arms, legs...wait...not all of those could be fingers. Could they? They were, in a way. They were Alucard's shadow fingers. Whatever you wanted to call them, they didn't feel bad. She could feel something happening to her ankle. It didn't hurt; just like he said there wouldn't be, there was no pain, no blood. It just felt strange. She remembered hearing that a vampire's saliva had healing properties. She never thought it could do this, though. Mend bones? Alucard was the most powerful vampire she knew of, though; perhaps, only he could do something like this.

She didn't know how long he kissed her; she just sort of fell into the rhythm of it after a while. When he stopped, he looked at her briefly, grinned at her shocked expression, and then reached down and squeezed her ankle. She gasped when she saw what he was doing, but was even more surprised when she found that all she felt was the pressure of his hand--no pain at all. She looked at him in awe and then, slowly, a smile cracked her face. Neither of them said anything for a few moments. She guessed he was relieved that she didn't get up and shoot him or something. No, instead, she smirked all cute-like and said, "Hey, my glasses broke when I fell." She took the bent, glassless frames out of her pocket and dangled them in front of her. "Can you fix those too?"


End file.
